Messages

1

For Sale / FS: Multiple CHEAP roof racks on EBAY $45 free shipping.

« on: June 14, 2012, 08:56:30 PM »

Wow, forgot the link...

http://www.ebay.com/itm/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=280805084649&_trksid=p2992.m753#ht_1784wt_1189

I am not by any means the seller! I just found these and they are really decent looking for next to nothing. These look like they were designed/built about when our cars were new, so it's a nice fit aesthetically!

They are all steel, but the whole thing may have weighed 10 lbs. The bars are wrapped in some type of heat-shrink plastic but look pretty good. The whole thing set up in 10 minutes.

I purchased this to carry bikes but haven't gotten a tray yet as they are expensive so I have no idea on rigidity.

Here's a crappy shot, but anyone who is really interested, let me know and I'll post a few more probably tomorrow.

2

Engine + Driveline / Do I have a bad motor mount?

« on: June 14, 2012, 08:42:44 PM »

Thanks again fellas. Been a bit busy the past few days but here are the motor mounts if that helps at all. I had a friend do the "grab the engine push" test too and he seemed to think it was solid.





The first pic is the driver's side and that's just PS fluid.

Nelson, I'll read up on that for sure. From what I gathered, it was just cleaning up poorly routed coolant lines?

I have no idea what these heater plates were or why they are gone, so I guess I'll get to reading, but everything seems to run and drive fine.

Also, thanks in advance to anyone who takes the time to help out and give their opinion.

3

Engine + Driveline / Do I have a bad motor mount?

« on: June 10, 2012, 10:37:43 PM »

Nelson, thanks for the heads up, and I appreciate your advice. I cant seem to get the motor to budge in any direction, so we'll call the results inconclusive. Here's a shot I took earlier of the way the shroud was cut in order to let the fan clear. Looks like shit, I know... Look @ the lowest fan-blade (as it sits perpendicular to the shroud's edge) to see how far it actually sticks out.



Here's the other side as I bought the car. I probably should have taken the picture of my attempt to fit the stock air box back up so you all could see the gap, but it definitely seems to coincide with the issues on the other side of the vehicle.



Like I said, I'm not much of a mechanic, but it's apparent to me that this car has been rigged. The current air filter is on there because the stock one wouldn't reach and the shroud is cut to clear the fan blades.

As someone who does complete bicycle restorations, I appreciate custom, independent, fabricated, one-off, home-made, etc, but this is straight up ghetto-rigged and I don't approve. Any thoughts would be appreciated. Also, the intake boot is cracked and dry-rotted to hell, do I go OEM, or is there better?

thanks in advance for any replies.

4

Engine + Driveline / Do I have a bad motor mount?

« on: June 10, 2012, 06:39:12 PM »

So let me preface this by saying I'm a bicycle mechanic, so excuse my ignorance toward this car and go easy on me.

When I bought the car, I noticed that the fan shroud was cut on the right side so that the fan could stick out a good 1 1/2". I thought that was odd but it didn't seem to cause any problems so I ignored it. The car was also set up with a short cold air intake type filter. Today I opted to revert to stock because it looks stupid the way it's set up and everyone seems to say that stock is the way to go.

Not happening. There's no way that the intake boot will stretch far enough for the air meter to plug into the top of the air box.


So I feel like my whole engine is sitting a good inch or more to the right. What could cause this?

I can provide pics if necessary. Thanks.

On a good note, great day @ the pull-a-part. $12 got me upper air vents that stay put, a clean rear-view mirror, an elephant trunk, the knob for the moon-roof crank, a dozen or so lug bolts, and a hood shock. Got a bunch of stuff for the e34 too.

5

General Topics / odd water leak fixed

« on: May 28, 2012, 07:26:22 PM »

Thanks Dave. I did enjoy the Audi but I hated working on it. Constant battle of wires and solder and chasing down oil leaks. Outstanding winter car (even with half-tread all seasons), but a little bland to drive outside of that.

As far as the sunroof drains go, I checked them three times!  My neighbors were giving me strange looks as I was walking around my car for 2 and a half hours putting back Black Labels, and sprinkling the car with a watering can... I'm positive it was due to that particular hole by the trunk hinge. I sat there pouring water through it and watched its path.

Reasonably satisfying knowing that I'll have carpet again soon!

6

General Topics / odd water leak fixed

« on: May 28, 2012, 01:52:30 PM »

Hey all, first post, first e30 as of 2 or so weeks ago. I had a b5 Audi a4qm for a while and eventually picked up an e34 525i 5 speed (to the left) as a car for the girlfriend... That car started the downfall of the Audi and the love for everything BMW. At any rate, here's the whip in sterlingsilber metallic on the way home from purchase -



I figured I'd try to add something constructive to this first post, so here goes. The car's been great, but I took it through the car wash only to find out that I had water EVERYWHERE, and I mean that. Oh well, it's a good excuse to dye the bleach-cleaned :confused: carpet (back to gray or even black) while it's out drying on my front porch. Long story short, all the typical leakage spots leaked and were reasonably easily fixed, however I did find an odd one that I could see being common so I decided to add a picture.

I found a good amount of standing water under the rear seat. Yeah, odd. Turns out, this caused it.



That's the mount for the left trunk hinge from the inside looking out. The weld (rivet?) broke, and parking uphill would fill up the jack storage compartment. Parking downhill would cause the water to flow forward around the wheel well up to the rear seat-back and through the seatbelt mount bolts pooling on the rear seat pan.

Just figured I'd share because I hadn't seen this one posted anywhere.